The Arkansas State Bank Department has given preliminary approval to an application for a change of control at First State Bank of Russellville, one of the final pieces in the estate plan of the late William H. Bowen, the legendary lawyer and banker who died in November 2014 at age 91.
Bowen’s stock in the bank holding company, First State Banking Corp., is being transferred to a trust controlled by his three children, including Cynthia Blanchard, whose husband, Charles Blanchard, is chairman and CEO of the bank.
The Blanchard and Bowen families control more than 60 percent of the stock in the holding company, Charles Blanchard told Whispers.
First State Bank had $230.5 million in assets as of June 30. It earned $2.24 million in 2015 and reported net income of $1.29 million in the first two quarters of 2016, an improvement of almost 19 percent from the first half of 2015. Equity capital stood at $25.9 million at mid-year.
“We’re just now getting the estate wrapped up and transferred into the three trusts,” he said. Otherwise, nothing at the 82-year-old bank will change.
“No changes in management, no changes in locations. We anticipate, at least through my lifetime, being as we are,” Blanchard said.
That includes the name. The number of First State banks in Arkansas has dwindled from eight to five in the past 15 years, but Blanchard says he’d be happy to be the last First State Bank.
“That’ll save us the expense of having to find a new name.”
Whispers also checked in with Marnie Oldner, CEO of Stone Bank in Mountain View, about its change of control application filed last week.
It too is just asset planning by J.T. Compton and family, the bank’s primary shareholders, Oldner said, and does not represent new ownership or any change in the operation.